1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to tongue scrapers and more particularly tongue scrapers utilizing sonic and ultrasonic acoustic mechanism to increase the effectiveness of the tongue scrapers and to provide for enhanced oral hygiene.
2. Description of Prior Art
The early tongue scrapers were invented in France in the 1930s (0399946-5/1932) to reduce bad breath. Various other tongue scrapers followed, such as U.S. Pat. No. 1,893,524 by Shanley, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,951,567 B2 by Levit, and many others. Many other devices followed wherein the tongue scraper part appeared in combination with manual toothbrushes (U.S. Pat. No. 5,980,541 by Tenzer) and (U.S. Pat. No. 7,478,452 B2 by Rosenblood et al.), and in combination with a dental floss dispenser (U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,949 B1 by Brown). All of these devices were developed for the common theme, for scraping and removing odor causing undesirable matter from the surface of the tongue. The odor causing undesirable matter (debris) is typically composed of enzymes, proteins, sugars, plaque, and anaerobic bacteria. These materials exist on the top surface of the tongue and in the bottom of the cavities between the papillae. As these materials decompose, the decomposition process results in sulfur gas, which is the cause of bad breath.
An improved attempt is represented by WO2002034145, which discloses a tongue scraper, which is connected to an ultrasonic dental device typically used for removing hard calcified tartar from teeth in the dental office. While this combination device improves the effectiveness of the tongue scraper by adding a low amplitude ultrasonic frequency vibration to the tongue scraper, it can only be used in the dental office and it is not practical for daily home use.
An Ultrasonic Tongue Scraper, WO2014/004979A1 is proposed by Wawiluk, which is designed for home use. In the specifications of his disclosure Wawiluk proposes a structure comprised by a Tongue Scraper Head Portion 100 and a Body Portion 200, wherein the Body Portion 200 comprises an ultrasound generator configured to generate ultrasound. The ultrasound generator is neither further defined in the specifications nor shown in the drawings of WO2014/004979A1. Not defining the structure of the proposed ultrasound generator and not defining how the generated ultrasound is transmitted from the Body Portion 200 to the Tongue Scraper Head Portion 100 is a critical failure of this proposal to teach the art.
It is not obvious of how and if the ultrasound generated in the Body Portion 200 is transferred to the ultrasound application part Leading Edge 105 of the Tongue Scraper Head Portion 100 of the invention.
What is clear is that the ultrasound generated in the Body Portion 200 has to progress through large amount of structural attenuation, multiple ultrasound attenuating surface interfaces and ultrasound killing air gaps to arrive to the surface of the Leading Edge 105 which is used to contact the tongue and supposed to transmit ultrasound from the device to the tongue, to assist the manual scraping. Therefore, it is clear that in all of the proposed embodiments described in the specifications of WO2014/004979A1 the ultrasound reaching the working Leading Edge 105 is highly limited in intensity and efficacy.
The teachings of the early art of how the debris is scraped off from the top surface of the tongue is well defined. However, scraping the debris off from the top surface of the tongue only reduces the malodor from the sulfur gases generated by the decomposing matter on the top surface of the tongue, and does this only temporarily. It does not impact proteins, sugars, plaque and the anaerobic bacteria in the folds of the tongue and in the creases of the papillae. To render these hidden bacteria ineffective, and to stop the sulfur gas producing decomposition process, intense ultrasonic pressure waves are required to penetrate to the bottom of the folds in the tongue and the cavities of the papillae. None of the prior art disclosed teach this.
While there was progress to date toward an effective tongue cleaner device to eliminate bad mouth odor, the past progress is only a temporary and momentary solution. The quest for a permanent solution to eliminate or render ineffective the root cause of the malodor, the anaerobic bacteria from the tongue and the papillae is still not fulfilled.